WeekendCoffeeShare-Update

If we were having coffee today I’d have to tell you I am very happy to see you. Last week I talked about my upcoming eye surgery on my cataracts, so I thought I should give you a little update.

It is nothing short of amazing. And that’s just one eye. Of course, my right eye was my dominant eye, it always has been, but I’d been depending more and more on my left eye, although I knew it was rapidly deteriorating too. The doctor suggested I have the right lens removed from my glasses but I actually think I function better without that … since my left eye, even corrected, is pretty bad.

I was just standing on the front porch. There is a small store across the street from us. I can close my left eye and see the small, lit “OPEN” sign clearly. If I cover my right eye, I CAN’T EVEN SEE THE SIGN. That’s uncorrected. I can see that there is a store there, as I can with most other big things. It is like looking through smoke and haze. Understand, this eye is about 50% better than my right eye had become.

I had become pretty used to my deteriorated vision. I was still driving up to two weeks ago, depending on the weather and the light conditions and how my eyes seemed to be functioning at the time — some days I could see better than on other days. Since the surgery, my wife had been reluctant to let me drive again, but I told her, really, I can see so much better than I could even see two or three months ago.

The new situation is not without its adjustments and pitfalls. I still have what they call “floaters” … including one I was calling a dragon’s claw, shifting back and forth just out of my central vision, a bit like a hair on an old projector lens at the movies. It has diminished over the last several days, now more like a spider or fly, dancing around. The doctor said it is not uncommon and should likely fade over the next couple of weeks. The nature of my eyes precluded a complete adjustment … although the eye tested at 20/20 for distance, I still need enhancement to read. Although this seems a minor adjustment, it is actually more than I anticipated. I’ve worn progressive lenses for almost 20 years … basically trifocals without lines. I used to joke they were like being young again. Now, I don’t need glasses for distance but have to relearn what I used to do years ago before the progressives and keep reading glasses handy. I haven’t had to do that in a while and it is different now with things like tablets and smart phones. I’ll know more when I have the other eye complete.

But considering I struggled to even see the screen to type last week’s dispatch, I can see the screen clearly now with minimal strength reading glasses, although I think I’ll need to take it easy because even now I can detect eye strain as my left eye struggles to help. Not complaining, mind you, as I know this is temporary.

Eye two scheduled for early December.

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Thomas Fenske is a writer living in NC. Find out about his novels The Fever, and A Curse That Bites Deep at http://thefensk.com
He really needs some sales to help pay for all these related medical expenses!